June 19. 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
195 
Tndusium, which, at the period of the maturity of the 
seed, hursts open, sometimes towards the nerves and 
sometimes towards the margin, but in plants of a 
similar habit, uniformly in a similar manner. The 
merit of this discovery is due exclusively to Sir J. E. 
Smith, who found it to be a most decisive criterion for 
the determining of natural genera, and the only sure 
ground on which the botanist can rely. When this 
integument bursts, the fruit, now ripe, escapes, which is 
for the most part a capsule surrounded by an elastic and 
jointed ring opening transversely, and discharging the 
enclosed seed or sporule, which is a small and minute 
globule, discoverable only by the microscope, and 
capable of giving origin to a new plant. Ferns were 
raised from the sowing of their seeds in 1789 by 
Mr. J. Lindsay, of Jamaica, as also by Mr. J. Fox, of 
Norwich, about the same time." 
From that time Ferns began to obtain more notice 
from gardeners, and there is now no order of plants of 
which the propagation and culture are better understood. 
ADIANTUM CAPILLUS VENERIS.* 
(True Maiden-iiair Fern.) 
This most elegant Fern was not known by our early 
botanists to be native of this country. Gerarde says, 
“The right Maiden hair groweth upon walls, in stoney, 
shadowy, and moist places near unto fountains, and 
where water dropetl). It is a stranger to England; 
notwithstanding I have heard it reported by some of 
* We have often been asked if a complete list of Synonymes can be 
obtained. We publish the following, to show wliat even an incomplete 
one is: — 
A. Capillus vulgaris. Linn. Species Plantarum, 1558. Linn. Met. 
Med. ed. 2-220. Minis. FI. Anglica, 4f)0. Miller Diet. 1. Scopoli 
FI. Cam. n. 127/. Bolt. Fil. 24. t. 29. Jacq. Misc. ii. p. 77- t. 7. 
Smith FI. Brit. iii. p. 1138. Swartz. Syn. Fil. 124. Withering. Arr. 
781. Muds Eng. FI. 243. Lightf. FI. Scot. 679. Dicks. Hurt. Sicc. | 
fuse. 6 . 16. Crantz Jnet. i. 31, 
A. petiolis ramosis, foliis flabelliformibus, lobatis. Haller Helv. n. 1713. I 
A. foliis coriandri. Bauhin. Pin. 355. Moris. Mist. iii. p. 587. s. 14. 
t. 5. f. 6 . Tourn. Inst. 543. Town. Ele. Bot. 433. Linn. Mat. I 
Med. ed. 1. 169 . Alston Tiro-Bot — Magnol. Bot. Mans p. 4. 
A. coriaudrifolium. Lanark. Encyc. 
